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People in need can get a hot breakfast and pick up a turkey and all the fixings for Thanksgiving dinner Monday in Bristol Borough. In addition, 50 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and those in active service and their spouses can get checks for $50 to $200, based on need. The 400 Thanksgiving dinners will be provided through the Gene and Marlene Epstein Humanitarian Fund, which has been donating the holiday meals for 26 years. Proof of unemployment, welfare, disability benefits, or military service, is needed to get a turkey, stuffing, side dishes, and a pie at Calvary Baptist Church.

There are door prizes, and then there is walking away with a burlap bag stuffed with $1,000 in tens and twenties. That's the kind of "door prize" possible at a Stake dinner. A cash donation of $10 to $20 at the door (your decision, based on your wallet) gets you a three-course vegetarian meal (made from donated ingredients, cooked by volunteers) and a ballot listing a handful of nascent community projects looking for a financial boost. Between dinner and dessert, each project sends a representative onstage to plead its case.

As families gather for large and loud celebrations at year's end, children often are relegated to a space of their own during meals, whether they like it or not. "I love the idea of everyone around the table for Thanksgiving, sharing stories and enjoying each other's company. But sometimes, that isn't realistic," says Lydia Menzies, a former teacher who now plans parties and writes a children's party blog called "The Party Wagon" (party-wagon.com). "I think the best approach is to do what works best for your family and the flow of the host or hostess' home.

DEAR ABBY: You sometimes publish letters regarding random acts of kindness. I know people like to share how blessed they are that others have given to them. Well, I would like to share how being the giver is a blessing as well. My children and I eat lunch out on Saturdays. Most recently, we went to one of our favorite restaurants. As we were being seated, I noticed an elderly gentleman eating alone. He read the paper, ate his meal and kept to himself. I was struck by how alone he seemed to be. All during the lunch, I couldn't shake the feeling that I should reach out. Finally, I gave in. I went to the counter and paid for his meal.

What does family dinner look like at your house? The Cosby Show or Leave It to Beaver but with texting teens? A scene from Modern Family ? Or The Simpsons , but with better food? The ritual of gathering for a meal may look a bit like any of these. Or not. That's the beauty of family dinner: It may bring together a mom, dad, preteen, and toddler - or a trio of fresh-out-of-college roommates for pizza, or a quartet of friends for a potluck - sharing different stories and different foods.

HOUSTON - A former Texas inmate who cooked the final meals for hundreds of condemned prisoners is offering to start doing it again at no cost to the state now that officials have ended the practice of allowing the special last requests. Brian Price, who wrote a cookbook called "Meals to Die For," about his former duties, and who runs a restaurant in East Texas, said yesterday that the move by prison officials was "cold-hearted. " "I am offering to prepare, and/or pay for, all of the last-meal requests from this day forward," he said.

Philadelphia-area photographer Sabina Louise Pierce was sitting on the patio of the White Dog Cafe one night with Maddie, her wirehair fox terrier, and a thought came to her: "Wouldn't it be great if there was a menu for dogs, instead of 'a bite for me and a bite for her'?" She filed that away. Shortly after the 2007 pet-food recall over melamine, chef Matt Levin, at the time working at Lacroix in the Rittenhouse Hotel, let on that he cooks for his dogs. Pierce approached her friend, the author Kathryn Levy Feldman, with the idea of a cookbook: Pierce's photographs and Feldman's words.

"It's in the little towns that one discovers a country, in the kind of knowledge that comes from small days and nights. " - James Salter in "A Sport and a Pastime" The last time we visited Provence, we hit the bold-faced places - Avignon, Aix, Arles, Nimes - but after seven years the memories had dimmed: scarce parking during some Avignon fete, those almond candies in Aix, the Roman amphitheater in Arles, and the blazing heat and...

As the saying goes, if you can't take the heat you're supposed to exit the kitchen. On these sticky, sweaty, nights of summer, that means either keeping the corner pizza place on speed-dial or learning how to get creative with no-cook meals. "You may have the air conditioner running, but once you turn on the stove you are literally turning on a heater in the house," says Rich Landau, chef/owner of the soon-to-open Vedge restaurant. "So it makes sense to figure out some other ways to eat. " Admittedly, taking the stove and oven out of the equation limits the options for meal preparation.

NEW YORK - An apple a day may keep the doctor away. But when you put it in a Happy Meal, it might help keep regulators at bay, too. McDonald's on Tuesday said that it would add apple slices and reduce the portion of French fries in its children's meal boxes beginning this fall, effectively taking away consumers' current choice: either apples with caramel dip or fries as a Happy Meal side. The move by McDonald's, which has become a leader in moving from just burgers and fries to more nutritious fare like oatmeal and salads, comes as fast-food chains face intense scrutiny from health officials and others who blame the industry for childhood obesity and other health problems.